Gaymer cider business sold to Magners

Monday, 30 November 2009

The Gaymer Cider Company, the UK's number two cider producer with 80% of its sales going through the off-trade, has been snapped up by Ireland-based C&C, the Magners cider company, this week for £45m from drinks giant Constellation Brands.

The deal will create a cider portfolio including brands such as Magners, Blackthorn and Gaymer's Old English, which are all top 10 cider brands in the take-home market.

The cider production plant at Shepton Mallet, Somerset, is included in the deal, which is expected to be completed by mid-January, provided it gets the all-clear from the Office of Fair Trading.

The Gaymer Group, which is also a significant producer of supermarket own-label cider, produced 1.5 million hectolitres of cider in the year to February, making it almost twice the size of the Magners' current UK volumes.

John Dunsmore, chief executive officer at C&C, said: "This transaction strengthens our position within the world's largest cider market and broadens the scope of the group's existing cider offering."

In the summer, C&C Group entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the businesses of Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland for a total consideration of £180m.

The deal included the acquisition of the Tennent's brand, which is Scotland's leading lager brand, along with the Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow and distribution rights to certain ABI brands in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, including Stella Artois and Beck's, as part of a "strategic partnership" with the world's largest brewer.

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